Evaluation of Los Angeles County's Mental Health Community Engagement Campaign

Abstract

The Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health (LAC DMH) recently undertook a youth-targeted social marketing campaign that sought to increase community engagement around barriers to mental health access. LAC DMH's campaign utilized funds from Proposition 63, which was signed into law as the Mental Health Services Act (MHSA). The MHSA levied a 1 percent state-level tax on all California personal incomes over $1 million, resulting in a substantial investment in mental health. A portion of those funds is specifically allocated for prevention and early intervention (PEI) activities and cannot be used for other purposes (e.g., treatment, housing). LAC DMH dedicated some of these MHSA PEI funds to the development and implementation of a social marketing campaign. In partnership with the California Mental Health Services Authority (CalMHSA), LAC DMH requested an evaluation of the campaign. Through the current evaluation, LAC DMH sought to understand who was reached by the campaign and what the impact of that contact was. RAND Health CareThis evaluation was undertaken by RAND Health Care, a division of the RAND Corporation, and funded by CalMHSA. A profile of RAND Health Care, abstracts of its publications, and ordering information can be found at www.rand.org/health. CalMHSAThe California Mental Health Services Authority (CalMHSA) is an organization of county governments working to improve mental health outcomes for individuals, families, and communities. Prevention and early intervention programs implemented by CalMHSA are funded by counties through the voter-approved Mental Health Services Act (Prop. 63). Prop. 63 provides the funding and framework needed to expand mental health services to previously underserved populations and all of California's diverse communities.

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“…Among those exposed, 8 percent reported visiting the LACDMH website. This is the same percentage observed among survey respondents ages 26 or older in our evaluation of the LACDMH COVID-19 campaign, which was done about one year prior to this report's publication (Collins, Eberhart, Shearer, et al, 2021). The numbers may not be comparable because the current survey also included adults ages 18 to 25 and because characteristics of the pandemic-and perhaps stress levels-have changed over time.…”

“…We had made these same points in our evaluation of the LACDMH COVID-19 campaign (Collins, Eberhart, Shearer, et al, 2021) and suggested that Los Angeles County feature the LACDMH website address and Help Line number more prominently in its outdoor and print images instead of in broadcast media, where such details are harder to process and memorize. County staff did so in the materials evaluated in this report, but it does not appear to have increased uptake.…”

“…Furthermore, the small percentages who accessed these resources represent large numbers at the population levelroughly 800,000 county residents using the website and 200,000 using the helpline. Increasing these rates would nonetheless be helpful in closing the gap between the percentage of county residents experiencing psychological distress and the percentage accessing treatment (Collins, Eberhart, Shearer, et al, 2021).…”

“…In 2018, LACDMH undertook a campaign to increase community engagement (i.e., interest and activism) around removing barriers to mental health care access, promote awareness of county mental health resources and services, and communicate messages of resilience, community, hope, and support. Around the globe (Gaebel, Rössler, and Sartorius, 2016), in California (Collins, Wong, Roth, et al, 2015), and in Los Angeles County (Collins, Eberhart, Marcellino, et al, 2018), social marketing campaigns have been effective in shifting attitudes related to mental health, increasing social acceptance of those experiencing mental health challenges, and increasing awareness and use of mental health services (Collins, Eberhart, Marcellino, et al, 2018;Collins, Wong, Breslau, et al, 2019;Collins, Eberhart, Seelam, et al, 2020;Collins, Eberhart, Shearer, et al, 2021).…”

“…LACDMH and the California Mental Health Services Authority commissioned the RAND Corporation to conduct an evaluation of the reach and impact of the fall 2020 WhyWeRise campaign and the 2021 WeRise effort. We previously evaluated the 2018 and 2019 WhyWeRise campaigns and Los Angeles County's COVID-19-related mental health campaign (Collins, Eberhart, Marcellino, et al, 2018;Collins, Eberhart, Seelam, et al, 2020;Collins, Eberhart, Shearer, et al, 2021). In this report, we evaluate the effects of the fall 2020 WhyWeRise outdoor ads (e.g., billboards, bus shelters), television and radio outreach, and the online portion of the 2021 WeRise events.…”